This headline is wrong. This has nothing to do with thermal cameras. It's "cloaking" by making it appear to have the same bulk thermal properties as it's surroundings.
schiffern 9 hours ago [-]
Yes. Unfortunately many people are reading this thinking it's a FLIR invisibility cloak.
Notably it only works after the heat flow settles back down to equilibrium. If you're moving, it doesn't work.
natpalmer1776 8 hours ago [-]
Which seems like it would be good for fixed installations that need to remain undetected, no?
schiffern 7 hours ago [-]
The other caveat is that it only works if you're embedded inside a solid object. ;)
If you're in free space, the surface can't shine its IR differently in different directions, so under FLIR it will just look like the average ambient temperature. This is no better than existing (cheap and light) space blanket camo systems.
inSumErgoCogito 2 hours ago [-]
So a "heatpump cooling", store concentrated heat and inject it into the ground would work much better?
AuthAuth 10 hours ago [-]
This is gonna be going straight to Ukraine
MrDrMcCoy 9 hours ago [-]
I certainly hope so!
sebstefan 8 hours ago [-]
> Although the current cloak represents a major advance, the researchers want to develop more sophisticated versions capable of performing additional functions. One particularly important goal is to conceal objects that produce heat themselves
I read the entire thing thinking it could cloak a soldier
6 hours ago [-]
scotty79 6 hours ago [-]
It could cloak a well insulated soldier from being a dark spot on the background.
nickandbro 5 hours ago [-]
I believe the Russians tried something similar in Ukraine with cloaking themselves to fool infrared drones.
qlte 4 hours ago [-]
Using 50 cent Mylar blankets which ... did not work like they hoped from the videos I've seen.
bitwize 2 hours ago [-]
We have AIs hacking people's computers and brains, and now we have the Major's thermo-optic camouflage. They were right to keep the newest Ghost in the Shell set in 2029-2030. Seems like it's right on time.
tescreal 9 hours ago [-]
Next cyberpunk wizpop toy: thermoptic cameoflage.
The future is turning out to be fascinating as concerning.
computemachines 4 hours ago [-]
Maybe this could be used to hide a cold spot from a wafer bake pin.
nxobject 9 hours ago [-]
A Faraday for heat, eh?
dalmo3 8 hours ago [-]
I've always wanted to hide apples inside pears.
jagged-chisel 11 hours ago [-]
Does this work for things that emit heat?
thenthenthen 9 hours ago [-]
The article mentions thats the next step
SeanAnderson 10 hours ago [-]
Doesn't everything emit heat? :)
chorsestudios 6 hours ago [-]
no, the vacuum of space does not emit heat
antonvs 1 hours ago [-]
Interstellar space behaves as an almost perfect blackbody radiator, at a temperature of 2.725 Kelvin, due to the cosmic microwave background. As such, it does "emit heat", albeit an extremely small, but measurable amount.
10 hours ago [-]
glitchc 10 hours ago [-]
Let me answer your question with a question: Does the infrared camera detect emitted heat?
antonvs 1 hours ago [-]
Not clear where your question is coming from, but it detects heat that's emitted as infrared radiation.
jagged-chisel 7 hours ago [-]
Generally? Yes.
In this case? No idea.
vivzkestrel 6 hours ago [-]
- future soldier 2 loading....
graboy 10 hours ago [-]
Wow, a blanket!
thenthenthen 9 hours ago [-]
More like an iron maiden
scotty79 6 hours ago [-]
When you cover yourself with the blanket, others see the blanket. When you cover yourself with this, others see background.
bamboozled 9 hours ago [-]
Bad luck skynet
keyle 9 hours ago [-]
And that Predator monster!
SV_BubbleTime 11 hours ago [-]
[flagged]
jdlshore 11 hours ago [-]
Is dismissing people’s work so rudely how you make yourself feel superior?
thin_carapace 11 hours ago [-]
that guy taught me something new about glass in a snarky fashion , while you delivered pure snark. no comment to add, merely an observation
tarpitt 11 hours ago [-]
you can't make a drone entirely out of glass
onion2k 11 hours ago [-]
Can you fly a drone that's covered with a cloak?
mrandish 10 hours ago [-]
Probably not very well if the drone is the typical (quad)copter type since the shield will likely obstruct the airflow from the propellers reducing lift. The added weight of the shield is also likely to be a problem in small drones as most are already weight constrained. Although in small electric copters like those used in Ukraine, I'm not sure how often thermal imaging is used as a primary detection vector (due to size, distance and daytime thermal delta from below).
Thermal is definitely a primary vector in detecting larger drones like the Reaper due to large combustion or jet engines, but in that case the challenge isn't cloaking the drone, it's cloaking the heat of the vented exhaust that's likely leaving a thermal 'contrail' across the sky.
Rendered at 09:22:26 GMT+0000 (Coordinated Universal Time) with Vercel.
https://www.nature.com/articles/s41467-026-73167-0
FYI Ukraine already has FLIR invisibility cloaks (fancy camo space blankets): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GfdF3iIwoX4
This is thermal cloak, explained here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CM2RJi4mRZ0&t=52s
Notably it only works after the heat flow settles back down to equilibrium. If you're moving, it doesn't work.
If you're in free space, the surface can't shine its IR differently in different directions, so under FLIR it will just look like the average ambient temperature. This is no better than existing (cheap and light) space blanket camo systems.
I read the entire thing thinking it could cloak a soldier
The future is turning out to be fascinating as concerning.
In this case? No idea.
Thermal is definitely a primary vector in detecting larger drones like the Reaper due to large combustion or jet engines, but in that case the challenge isn't cloaking the drone, it's cloaking the heat of the vented exhaust that's likely leaving a thermal 'contrail' across the sky.